I have taken part in many protests over the years starting with the Vietnam War. Along with hundreds of thousands of others I marched twice in London against the Iraq War without effect. It was clear to me later that the only way to have prevented British participation would have been for a hundred thousand people to blockade Downing Street for weeks. As the French philosopher Alain Badiou has pointed out (lecture, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 25 Sep 06); when a government is about to use extraordinary violence and we object, we are schooled to march peaceably and then go home to tea with a sense of accomplishment. The rulers are thus entitled to conclude that they have approval, because there was no evidence of serious disapproval. Neither do they fear violence on a level even weakly comparable to what they are about to unleash on the innocent.

Individual acts of protest are important, but unless they grow into something significant I suspect they may benefit the protester's self-image more than the cause.